Neal James is a space station navigator whose lover, Dylan Teague, left him for a starmapping mission. But when Dylan radios in a distant signal one night, Neal discovers that he hasn't managed to put the relationship behind him in the two months they've been apart. When he's one of the crew members sent to investigate the signal, he finds that his ex-lover feels the same.<br><br>The source of the signal is a lost colony ship. Only a handful of the original colonists remain, survivors of a deadly disease that killed most of their fellow shipmates twenty years ago. To keep the threat of disease to a minimum, the colony adheres to strict laws, including the prohibition of same-sex relationships.<br><br>When the same fatal virus seems to appear again, Neal and Dylan find themselves in the midst of an irrational panic and hate that threatens to destroy everything the colonists have worked so hard to attain.

Operation Starseed

Conlan knows this is wrong, he told me that.


He knows I don’t belong here. He knows the way I feel for Dylan and


he says he understands the feeling, he’s the only one here who


does—love is a foreign concept to these colonists. But there’s


Marie, whose mother took him in when his own parents died. More


sister to him than lover, I’d imagine, but she’s carried his


children, both of them, and that has to mean something. That has to


create some kind of bond, regardless of what everyone else here


seems to think, what Ellingtonseems to think. Conlan’s lost


one child already. I suspect he’s harnessed too much hope on


Shanley’s briox to let another go without a fight.


I still remember the struggle I saw in his


face, Ellington’s words battling with mine, what the colony needs


versus what heneeds, and he almost won that time,


almost.I could seeit, the way he wanted to listen


to me, he wantedto say that his child is more important


Chapter 74